Auto Press Minolta

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The Auto Press Minolta (オートプレスミノルタ) is a strut-folding camera with coupled rangefinder, taking 6.5×9cm plates or film sheets, made by Chiyoda Kōgaku Seikō (predecessor of Minolta) from 1937. It is an upgraded successor of the Auto Minolta.

Description

The Auto Press Minolta was much inspired by the Plaubel Makina IIS but has a reversed configuration, with the viewfinder on the photographer's left.

The main body is the same as on the Auto Minolta, but reversed. The rectangular front plate is chrome-finished. It is mounted on scissor struts offset to the left, attached to a spring-loaded shaft. There are smaller struts on the right. The camera is opened by a small button placed on the right-hand side of the body, under the leather strap embossed AUTO PRESS. There is a single tripod thread at the bottom.

There is a chrome-finished top housing covering the whole length of the body. It contains the viewfinder eyepiece at the left end, providing automatic parallax correction. The viewfinder's main glass element is hinged to the front plate and has a crosshair; the hinge is spring-loaded and the element is maintained in retracted position by a small pin. The automatic parallax correction feature was very novel at the time, and the Auto Press Minolta was perhaps the first Japanese camera to incorporate it. It might have been the main reason to reverse the Auto Minolta's body, to have the scissor struts' main axis just below the viewfinder for easier coupling of the parallax correction device to the focusing mechanism.

The coupled rangefinder is contained in the right side of the top housing. It has two windows at the front and an eyepiece offset to the left, not far from the viewfinder eyepiece.

The camera also has a wireframe finder hinged to the top corners of the front part, used in conjunction with a bead hinged at the rear of the top housing.

The camera is focused by turning a small knob controlling the angle of the main struts, placed at the left end of the front plate (this layout is symmetrical to that of the Auto Minolta). The distance is indicated by a circular scale rotating around a fixed arrow index. The scale is graduated from &infty; down to 1m, and the central index has depth-of-field indications; the whole device is placed at the bottom left of the lens, as seen from the front. There is a button placed between the lens and the focusing wheel, unlocking the scissor struts to close the camera.

The lens is a four-element Promar Anastigmat Nippon 105mm f/3.5, said to be made by Asahi Kōgaku (predecessor of Pentax). This lens was similar to the Promar Anastigmat Nippon 75mm f/3.5 lens mounted at the same time on the Auto Semi Minolta. The same company Asahi Kōgaku was already supplying the Coronar Anastigmat Nippon and Actiplan Anastigmat Nippon lenses of other Minolta cameras.

The shutter is a rim-set Crown-Rapid (T, B, 1–400) made by the Chiyoda company itself. Two levers protrude at the top of the shutter casing: the larger winding lever has a black dot and runs in a slit of the front plate, whereas the self-timer lever is smaller and has a red dot. The shutter plate is silver and has the words Patents–Nippon engraved at the top, and an aperture scale from 3.5 to 25 screwed at the bottom. The long aperture lever is shaped as a scythe and runs in an indent of the front plate, under the shutter casing. The shutter name CROWN–RAPID is inscribed at the bottom of the speed setting rim.

The main release protrudes at the top right corner of the front standard (as seen by the photographer), and contains a thread for a cable release. There is an indent in the main body, to accommodate the release button when the camera is folded.

The camera has two attachments for a flashgun on the left-hand side of the main body. Flash synchronization is actuated by the movement of the shutter's winding lever. There is a selector on the front plate, near the main release, with ON and OFF indications, perhaps used to engage or shut the synch connection. The synch contact is transmitted by the auxiliary struts to the bottom flashgun attachment, allowing cordless operation. The Auto Press Minolta was the first Japanese camera synchronized for flash, and was maybe the first camera in the world to have a hot shoe.

The model name Auto Press is engraved in a stylized form above the top housing, and the brand name Minolta is at the front, between the two rangefinder windows, in a similar stylized form, the same as on the contemporaneous Auto Semi Minolta. The body serial number is engraved on the viewfinder's front element support, with an Nr. prefix.

The dimensions of the camera are 140×118×133mm, and the weight is 1,300g.

Context

To be reworked

The 1930s were the era of the German camera makers since they offered a great range of innovative cameras for the new 35mm film standard. But the more traditional field of medium format folders was not dominated by them. But some innovations in this field were remarkable, for example the new concept of a strut folding press camera introduced with the Makina II in 1933 by Plaubel. Chiyoda Kōgaku used this camera conception for its first camera with built-in flash-synchronization-switch. It was not a copy of the Makina but of its concept. Other than the archetype Chiyoda's Minolta Auto Press had horizontal and vertical scissors type struts, and the optical finder used only one collapsible lens frame together with a built-in ocular instead of the Makina's two collapsible frames. Several other details were different so that it was a real Minolta and not a fake Makina. The Auto Press had a predecessor, the cheaper Auto Minolta of 1935 which was simpler and looked more alike a simplified Plaubel camera without sports finder.

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catalogue of 1941 shows that it was expensive: 363 Yen

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Bibliography

• Asahi Camera (アサヒカメラ) editorial staff. Shōwa 10–40nen kōkoku ni miru kokusan kamera no rekishi (昭和10–40年広告にみる国産カメラの歴史, Japanese camera history as seen in advertisements, 1935–1965). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1994. ISBN 4-02-330312-7. Item 271.
• Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Minoruta ryakushi" (ミノルタ略史, "Minolta short history"). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.12, October 1988. No ISBN number. Minoruta kamera no subete (ミノルタカメラのすべて, special issue on Minolta). Pp.6–8.
• Awano Mikio (粟野幹男). "Senzen no Minoruta kamera" (戦前のミノルタカメラ, "Prewar Minolta cameras"). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.12, October 1988. No ISBN number. Minoruta kamera no subete (ミノルタカメラのすべて, special issue on Minolta). Pp.13–7.
• Baird, John R. The Japanese Camera. Yakima, WA: Historical Camera Publications, 1990. ISBN 1-879561-02-6. P.42 (picture only).
• Eimukku 735, Manyuaru Kamera Shirīzu 15 (エイムック735・マニュアルカメラシリーズ15). Minolta: Minoruta kamera no subete (Minolta:ミノルタカメラのすべて, Minolta: all of Minolta cameras). Tokyo: Ei Shuppansha, 2003. ISBN 4-87099-923-4. "Jabara-shiki kamera no kiseki" (蛇腹式カメラの軌跡", Evolution of folding cameras). Pp.131 and 133. Shows very small pictures and brief captions.
• Francesch, Dominique and Jean-Paul. Histoire de l'appareil photographique Minolta de 1929 à 1985. Paris: Dessain et Tolra, 1985. ISBN 2-249-27685-4. Pp.23–4 and 79.
• Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper), 0-935398-16-3 (hard). Pp.54 and 182.
• McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). P.673.
• Minolta Camera. Minolta 50-nen no ayumi (Minolta・50年のあゆみ, Minolta 50-year history). November 1978. Pp.6 and 65.
• Saeki Kakugorō (佐伯恪五郎). "Tashima Gizō-shi ni kiku" (田嶋義三氏に聞く, "Asking Tashima Gizō"). Kamera Rebyū: Kurashikku Kamera Senka (カメラレビュー クラシックカメラ専科) / Camera Review: All about Historical Cameras no.12, October 1988. No ISBN number. Minoruta kamera no subete (ミノルタカメラのすべて, special issue on Minolta). Pp.76–9.
• Scheibel, Anni Rita and Joseph. 70 Jahre Minolta Kameratechnik — Von der Nifcalette bis zur Dynax 9. Stuttgart: Lindemanns Verlag, 3rd edition, 1999. ISBN 3-89506-191-3. Pp.24–5.
• Shashin Kōgyō no.77 (September 1958). "Hensen kamera ichiran-pyō" (変遷カメラ一らん表, Table of camera evolution.) P.295. (This is a chronology of Minolta cameras from the Nifcarette onwards. This document is also reproduced in Tanimura, p.7 of Camera Collectors' News no.116.)
• Sugiyama, Kōichi (杉山浩一); Naoi, Hiroaki (直井浩明); Bullock, John R. The Collector's Guide to Japanese Cameras. 国産カメラ図鑑 (Kokusan kamera zukan). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1985. ISBN 4-257-03187-5. Items 1198.
• Tanimura Yoshihiko (谷村吉彦). "Semi Minoruta I-gata to II-gata." (セミミノルタⅠ型とⅡ型, "Semi Minolta I and II") In Camera Collectors' News no.116 (February 1987). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. (Contains a reproduction of the chronology in Shashin Kōgyō no.77 and no other information on the Auto Press Minolta.)

Links

In English:

• Auto Press Minolta in the 70th anniversary Minolta poster, reproduced at Photoclub Alpha
• Auto Press Minolta among Minolta folding cameras in the Manual Minolta website
• Auto Press Minolta, lot no.650 of Westlicht Photographica auction no.10

In Japanese:

• Auto Press Minolta in the Camera database of the Center of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology
• Auto Press Minolta in a page of wanted cameras at je2luz
• Auto Press Minolta in the Map Camera Museum
• Auto Press Minolta in the Kitamura Camera Museum